HealtySOLE has launched a new PLUS model of its shoe sanitizer meant for use in hospitals and other settings where infection control is urgent.
Researchers have proven a device using ultraviolet light technology can neutralize the coronavirus and other infectious diseases on the soles of shoes by more than 99.5 percent, according to a new study.
“The device deactivated coronavirus markers by over 99.5 percent versus the control across three separate tests,” according to the report as published by CREM Co, an internationally recognized infectious disease research and testing organization based near Toronto, Canada.
As hospitals seek ways to reduce COVID-19 infections, a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report points out that the virus is spread through floors and foot traffic, and not just by person-to-person contact.
“As people walk, they not only collect and spread pathogens on the soles of their shoes, but also aerosolize the virus, essentially kicking it back up in the air,” said HealthySole CEO Nelson Patterson. “The HealthySole device helps ensure pathogens aren’t tracked from patient rooms or wards to other locations.”
Research published April 10 by the CDC found that floors and shoe soles had the highest concentrations of COVID-19 in samples taken at a hospital facility in Wuhan, China. It also found the virus was being tracked well beyond patient rooms to other parts of the hospital, including into non-patient care areas such as hospital pharmacies where sampling indicated a 100% COVID-19 presence.
The study strongly recommended that “persons disinfect shoe soles before walking out of wards containing COVID-19 patients.”
When a user stands on a HealthySole device, a steady beam of UVC light, the only wavelength of ultraviolet light known to kill germs, bathes the soles of their shoes. The
process takes eight to 10 seconds. HealthySole already made a version of the device for home use but saw its product as a way to help healthcare facilities supplement daily floor cleaning.
Prior research on C. difficile conducted at Children’s Hospital at Erlanger by the University of Tennessee College of Medicine at Chattanooga found UVC light exposure to shoe soles to be statistically beneficial with an overall average 28% decrease of positive swabs.
